NewsWrap for the week ending April 1, 2006 (As broadcast on This Way Out program #940, distributed 4-3-06) [Written this week Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill and Rex Wockner] Reported this week by Charls Hall and Greg Gordon A proposed civil unions law in the Australian Capital Territory -- or A.C.T. -- has prompted the federal government's immediate vow to overturn such legislation if it passes. Introduced in the A.C.T. Parliament this week, the bill would grant same gender couples rights and responsibilities virtually equal to heterosexual marriage in all but name. However, just as the U.S. Congress has "oversight" on laws passed by the District of Columbia, Prime Minister John Howard's government can overrule any A.C.T. law it doesn't like. Earlier this year, Attorney General Philip Ruddock said in a nationally broadcast radio interview that "The question of whether or not there are civil unions is a matter for the states and territories." Ruddock angered equality activists this week by writing to A.C.T. Chief Minister Jon Stanhope, who's spearheading the civil unions legislation, threatening the federal veto and warning him not to press for its passage. The looming confrontation sparked debate on legal recognition of same gender couples in many other parts of the country. Western Australia's Gay and Lesbian Equality Group called on its government to enact legislation similar to that introduced in the A.C.T., noting that "The Howard Government can override the laws of a territory, but not a state." In Victoria, the Green Party asked their state Parliament "to follow the lead of the A.C.T. and offer all Victorian couples legal recognition of their relationships." Independent openly gay M.P. Andrew Olexander has thus far been thwarted from introducing a private members bill to create civil unions. And in Tasmania, which enacted a form of civil unions in 2003, leading activist Rodney Croome equated A.C.T. Chief Minister Jon Stanhope with popular San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who opened marriage to same gender couples in his city before they were invalidated by the California Supreme Court. "There will be a gap between the passage of the A.C.T. Civil Union scheme and Federal legislation to override it," Croome said. "The former is expected to pass in May. The latter can’t be passed before June. In those few short weeks expect a large number of same-sex couples to have their unions solemnized in [the A.C.T.]," he continued, their ranks "swollen by those who will now want to make a statement against government prejudice." South Africa's highest court ruled late last year that the country's marriage laws discriminate against same gender couples, and ordered Parliament to enact legislation by the end of this year to eliminate that bias. Furthering couples equality in that country, the Pretoria High Court issued a landmark ruling this week naming a gay man as the sole heir to his partner's estate. Mark Gory had been battling the parents of his partner Henry Brooks over who should rightfully be the legal heir after Brooks died suddenly in April 2005 without a will. Judge Willie Hartzenberg declared the current Intestate Succession Act unconstitutional and said it should acknowledge same gender relationships. The ruling ordered that the proceeds of the sale of the house and most of its contents that the couple co-owned, which the parents had sold in the interim, be given to Gory. The executor and the parents were also ordered to pay all court costs. The monetary amount is reportedly not a king's ransom, but Gory said it's nev er been about the money. "It was about the sanctity of our relationship," he said. But the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts -- the only U.S. state where same gender marriage is legal -- has upheld a law passed in 1913 that forbids out-of-state couples to wed in Massachusetts if their marriage would not be legally recognized in their home state. The antiquated legislation was passed at a time when interracial marriage was a hot-button issue, and marriage equality activists have charged Governor and probable Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney of "dusting off" the previously-obscure law in a cynical political maneuver. Romney has said he doesn't want Massachusetts to become the "Las Vegas of same-sex marriage." Rejecting a challenge to the law by 8 out-of-state couples, the Court declared that "The laws of this commonwealth have not endowed non-residents with an unfettered right to marry." However, the ruling applied only to the plaintiff couples from Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, because same gender marriage is specifically outlawed in those states. The Court withheld a ruling on the other plaintiff couples from New York and Rhode Island because neither state has a so-called "Defense of Marriage" statute or a clear-cut legal precedent that addresses the question. That part of the case was sent back to Superior Court Judge Carol Ball, who had originally upheld the 1913 law, to reconsider the measure on an "expedited basis" if and when same gender marriage becomes legal in one or both of those two states. In other U.S. state matrimonial news, Connecticut's highest court heard arguments in late March in a lawsuit brought by several lesbigay couples in the state challenging the ban on same gender marriage there. It's not known when a ruling will be announced. At about the same time, lawmakers in both Maryland and New Hampshire rejected attempts to add a ban on lesbian and gay marriage to their respective state constitutions. However, Florida's Supreme Court has approved ballot language outlawing same gender marriage or its "substantial equivalent", clearing the way for a petition drive to put the issue before that state's voters in 2008. But a young boy and his two dads will be reunited as a family thanks to a Maryland trial court ruling this week. Ulf Hedberg and Blaise Delahoussaye have been forced to live apart since mid-2002 after a Virginia court ruled that Hedberg could not maintain custody of his son unless his partner moved out of the home they'd shared for years. The family moved to Maryland, where the men maintained separate residences, and in 2004 Hedberg asked the state to modify the custody order. The trial court initially granted summary judgment to the boy's mother, Hedberg's ex-wife, who had moved to Florida, and who objected to Delahoussaye's "second dad" status, arguing that a Maryland court didn't have the right to revisit custody orders from a different state. But in June 2005, a Maryland appeals court sent the matter back to trial. Since none of the parties remained in Virginia, and because Maryland had become the boy's home state, the court now ruled, Maryland has jurisdiction, and the custody terms could be modified if a material change in circumstances arose that was not in the best interests of the child. The court agreed with Hedberg's assertion that his now 13-year-old son was very unhappy over being separated from Delahoussaye, and that the teen's quality of life had been substantially diminished because he missed living with his two dads under one roof. Hedberg's lawyer Susan Silber called the decision an "important ruling which acknowledges the best interest of the child... We are pleased to reunite this loving family." Also reunited with his loving family this week was Canadian James Loney following 4 months of captivity as a hostage in Iraq. What wasn't known until now is that the Christian peace activist is a gay man. His family and his partner Dan Hunt kept quiet about Loney's sexual orientation out of fear for what his captors might do if they found out. As reports out of Iraq continue to describe more and more religious-inspired killings of gay men, being "out" can literally be life-threatening in that country. Loney was rescued by coalition forces last week, along with fellow Canadian Harmeet Sooden and Briton Norman Kember. The executed body of a fourth hostage, American Tom Fox, was found earlier this month in Baghdad. Reading from a brief prepared statement, Loney told reporters, "I need some time to get reacquainted with my partner, Dan, my family, community and freedom itself... I'm eager to tell the story of my captivity and rescue," he said, "but I need a little time first." And finally, if we awarded a prize for "homophobe of the week" there would be at least a few candidates this week. The city council of Kanab, Utah has formally proclaimed support for the "natural family" — defined as a working husband, a stay-at-home wifee, and what the council referred to as a "full quiver of children." But local businesses this week -- seeing the tourist dollar downside -- began distancing themselves from that proclamation. Signs have popped up in shop windows in Kanab featuring a string of rainbow-colored people with the slogan, "Everyone Welcome Here!" Speaking just days before Italy's national elections, Pope Benedict XVI this week denounced same gender marriage, saying that the Church has a duty to defend "the recognition and promotion of the natural structure of the family as a union between a man and a woman based on marriage." But that's a variation of the same old song Benedict has been crooning on a regular basis since even before he became Pope. Another old song asks, [song excerpt:] "How much is that doggie in the window? I do hope that doggie's for sale." And the "blatantly biased" prize this week -- if we awarded one -- would go to a kennel owner in Sweden for her homophobic response to that musical question. Sweden's discrimination ombudsman, a government watchdog agency, filed a lawsuit charging that the unidentified pet proprietor was eager to sell a puppy to a female customer... but then refused after she discovered that the woman lives with a lesbian partner. The court fined the hateful kennel owner 20,000 kronor -- about 2,600 U.S. dollars -- for, one could say... barking up the wrong tree?